Read Online Second Chances (Nugget Romance 3) by Stacy Finz - Free Book Online Page A

to him. “She’s a sculptor with a good sense for color. Me, I would’ve painted everything white.”
    Leigh laughed. “It’s a very special home, Colin. Just spectacular.”
    “Thank you.”
    “Did Harlee tell you about my store?”
    He looked at Harlee for guidance.
    “No, Mom. I didn’t tell him.”
    “It’s just a small home interiors shop where I sell everything from soaps to linens. And I’d love to carry a couple of your pieces—maybe one of the rockers and one of the smaller farm tables. You do have a seller’s permit, don’t you?” She waved her hand through the air. “If not, we can figure a way to get around it.”
    “I do,” he blurted.
    “Excellent. Then let’s step back into your shop and make a deal.”

Chapter 5
    D arla sat at a makeshift desk at the back of her father’s barbershop applying her press-on nails, embellishing each one with a smiley face. Why? She didn’t know. It wasn’t like she had a whole lot to smile about. Other than a couple of kid haircuts and a wash and blowout, business was in the toilet.
    She stuck the last nail to her pinky and just for the hell of it painted it with a frownie. She should’ve done them all that way. The bell over the door chimed and about the best-looking man she’d ever seen came strutting in.
    “Owen around?”
    “No. He’s fishing. But I’m his daughter, Darla, and I do hair.”
    “Yeah? He won’t think I’m cheating on him if I let you trim me up?” He turned his face from left to right in the mirror, stroking his scruff.
    “Nope.” Darla smiled. “My dad’s trying to retire.”
    “Owen?” The man blew a raspberry. “What’ll the Nugget Mafia do without him?”
    Darla knew that was the nickname of the band of old farts who hung out in the barbershop. One of them was her dad’s best friend and Nugget’s mayor, Dink Caruthers. “They’ll probably hang out at the bowling alley.”
    “Nah. They’ll hang out at my gas station, haranguing me night and day.”
    She laughed. “So you’re the rich guy who bought the Nugget Gas and Go and designs custom motorcycles?” Owen had told her all about him. Her dad constantly bragged that he’d taken “the boy” under his wing and showed him how to run a business.
    “That would be me.” He stuck out his hand. “Griffin Parks at your service.”
    “So you want me to crisp up your lines?” It would screw up her nails, but finally a real client.
    “Sure.” He climbed into the leather barber chair that Owen had been doing haircuts in since before Darla was born. “Just clean me up.”
    “Come over to the shampoo bowl.”
    “Owen never shampoos me.”
    “Well, today you’re getting the works.” She was a stylist, not a barber. No way was she giving him a dry cut.
    Griffin followed her to the sink and let her wash his hair. “That feels great,” he said as Darla massaged his scalp.
    She’d stocked the barbershop with premium salon shampoos and had plans to sell all kinds of styling products. There wasn’t any place in Nugget to buy quality hair-care items and she figured she could make bank selling them out of the barbershop. But so far that had been as much of a bust as her career as a stylist.
    Darla pumped a dollop of conditioner into the palm of her hand and rubbed it through Griffin’s sandy blond hair. “You bought Sierra Heights too, didn’t you?”
    Nugget had fought the luxury planned community tooth and nail, fearing that it would turn the town, which was filled mostly with ranchers and railroad workers, into Lake Tahoe. The developers had won, only to wind up bankrupt. Word had it that Griffin purchased the development for half its value.
    “You know anyone who wants to buy a house?”
    Yeah, me.
    Living with her dad at twenty-seven wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind when she’d moved here. But until business picked up at the barbershop, she was thankful to have the free rent.
    “No one I know could afford one of those gargantuan homes,” she